Icelandic Nap Goes Global Courtesy of Ad Agency

An Icelandic man's lunchtime snooze started his 15 minutes of Internet fame.

Poor overworked Haukur Viðar Alfreðsson thought he could take a quick snooze on an office couch without causing any fuss. He was wrong. His co-workers at the Brandenburg ad agency in Reykjavik, Iceland made him into a meme. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens with Photoshop can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

The Brandenburg employees decided to insert Alfreðsson into everything from da Vinci’s The Last Supper, to Disney posters, to a DJ booth, then shot him out of a cannon.

The agency, which hasn’t disciplined him for the nap, promptly uploaded the photos to their Facebook page as a prank. When Alfreðsson’s brother posted the original photo to Reddit, it exploded as imitators put the Icelandic sleeping beauty in even more bizarre situations. Since being uploaded to Imgur, the images have been viewed nearly 1 million times.

It turns out Alfreðsson was so sleepy because of the time difference and his love for basketball. He stayed up to watch the NBA playoffs, which started at 1 a.m. local time in Iceland, despite having to be at the office bright and early at 9 a.m.

Haukur was none too pleased about people taking advantage of his afternoon slumber, telling IcelandMag, “These pictures became the hottest thing on Reddit for a while, where everyone was making fun of the fatso who fell asleep during work, but the fact is I was not sleeping on the job, but during lunch. Then, when I woke up I discover the first pictures are already online,” and continued by saying, “I hope my 15 minutes of fame are done now, because I am actually a very shy person!”

Alfreðsson, who’s currently awake on a business trip in Berlin, says he may use those 15 minutes to promote his band, Mordingjarnir (who kind of sound like a darker, more Nordic Fall Out Boy). Hopefully he also uses this time to learn how TiVo works.